Next Monday November 9th, retail and manufacturing jewelers in the Northwest will gather for a full day of education by some of the leading jewelry experts in their field. The second annual PJS will feature Jurgen Maerz, the technical director of the Platinum Guild on new developments for working with Platinum alloys along with Dr. Mark Danks from Johnson Matthey who will discuss the supply and demand issues for both Platinum and Palladium worldwide. We will also learn about the history and techniques used to create Mokume Gane from world renowned expert James Binnion along with a briefing on his new patented Extruded Patterned Metals that will allow for mass production of patterned metal jewelry

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On the “business” side, we will hear from Andrea Hill, the former CEO of Rio Grande and current national business consultant, about the future of small business for jewelers and how we can remain focused in these difficult times. We will also welcome Suzan Flamm of the Jewelers Vigilance Committee to the northwest who will speak on avoiding risk and how retailers can remain in compliance with the ever changing regulations for our industry.

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To round out the panel, Jim Tuttle will join us from Green Lake Jewelry to discuss how a focus on custom jewelry and internet marketing may be the new norm for the successful jewelry retailer Of course, I will also be there along with my own presentation and open forum on CAD/CAM technologies. Lastly, the founder of the PJS, Teresa Frye, of Techform Advanced Casting Technology  will present an excerpt from her Santa Fe Symposium paper on the affects of thermal expansion of model materials on casting quality. This revealing study was recently published again in the MJSA Journal and Teresa is expected to expand on her more recent findings about the casting CAD/CAM materials.
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The Portland Jewelry Symposium is a non-profit, non-commercial, forum. Its sole purpose is to bring jewelers together to educate and inspire. For more information and to make your reservation, you can telephone Techform at 503-652-5224 or follow the link to the PJS brochure at Portland Jewelry Symposium 2009

JCK